TakoTsubo syndrome and emotional stress: a heuristic approach.

While acute and reversible coronary syndrome without anatomical damage, called TakoTsubo syndrome, has been repeatedly associated with emotional stress, the specific categories of stressors have been ill-defined. Following a review of variously described emotional stressors associated with that specific cardiomyopathy, a clinical report is presented to raise two issues: the overlap of biological risk factors with emotional stress and the interplay of acute and subacute emotional stressors.